Education Start-Up Recognized as a ‘Technology Standout’ by Software Association’s Prestigious Innovation Incubator Program
Winston-Salem, N.C. – Child’sMind Publishing’s Predictive Assessment of Reading (PAR), a breakthrough universal diagnostic test for students in K-3rd grade, was awarded runner-up for the “Product or Service Most Likely to Succeed in the Education Market,” at the Ed Tech Industry Summit sponsored by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) earlier this month in San Francisco.
Child’sMind Publishing, a subsidiary of Wake Forest University Health Sciences, was one of 11 finalists from a virtual conference competition in the SIIA’s “Innovation Incubator Showcase.” At the actual conference, the finalists presented four-minute “elevator pitches,” and in the “Most Likely to Succeed” category, conference attendees voted Child’sMind’s PAR second only to the new Adobe Flash Catalyst.
PAR is based on 20 years of National Institutes of Health-funded research. Its developers say that PAR’s superior accuracy can save school districts millions of dollars by accurately identifying only those students who really need to be placed in special learning environments.
The SIIA’s initial virtual conference environment in this year’s competition is now open to the public at http://k-12.veplatform.com. SIIA’s Education Division committee members selected the finalists based on key criteria, including the alignment to SIIA's Vision K-20 benchmarks and education institution uses.
Paul Zimmerman, Child’sMind Publishing’s CEO and general manager, said, “Being selected to participate in the Innovation Incubator at SIIA was a great honor, and it was an outstanding platform for visibility of our new diagnostic educational assessment product, the Predictive Assessment of Reading.
“As a result of this conference, we are in talks with several companies for distribution and partnership agreements.” He added, “I don't feel too bad being outdone by Adobe Systems. All of the other companies in the Innovation Incubator were ‘normal’ education start-ups and PAR was chosen over all of them.”
The 2009 SIIA Innovation Incubator participants represent pre-revenue companies, established companies, non-profit groups, R&D agencies and academic institutions, and were officially introduced at the Ed Tech Industry Summit conference held May 3-5, 2009, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
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